Present Day Happiness
by Katie 452
Summary: The story of Casey and Derek told through flash backs. Complete. Please read and review.
1. Chapter 1

**Title:** Present Day Happiness

**Author: **Katie**  
**  
**Story Summary:** The story of Casey and Derek, told through flashbacks.

**Ratings:** PG 13, tilts towards R in final chapters

**Spoilers:** Full series

**Pairing:** Casey and Derek (Dasey)

**Authors Note:** So I wrote this as a one shot but it was way to long to post as such so I broke it up but it can defiantly still be read as a one shot. I will update regularly until all the chapters are up (the whole this is written so any time between updates is just me doing a final proof read).

This is my first time writing a LWD fic and this is a new style for me, so please be kind.

I have not seen every episode so if something isn't accurate please let me know.

Unbeta'ed so al mistakes are mine.

**Distribution: **Please! Just let me know.

**Feedback: **I worked quite hard on this, so _please review_!

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing, disclaimer applies to all chapters.

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-- Present Day --

She walks into the apartment; her key won't quite turn so she has to pull at the door while she pushes the key (of course he gave her a key that sticks – she suspects that he might have added gum or adhesive himself before handing the key over). He usually forgets to lock the door anyway, so she's a little surprised that she has to go through this. She finally gets the door open and tells herself for the thousandth time that she's going to get a new key (she always forgets).

She drops her jacket over a chair in the common room and lets her backpack and purse fall to the floor with a soft thump. She rubs her cheeks with the heels of her hands and takes a few deep breaths. She glances in the reflective surface of the microwave (he broke the mirror in this room a few days ago and she hasn't had the time to pick up a new one yet). She looks okay (ish) so she wipes the back of her hand against her eyes and squares her shoulders before walking into his room.

She stops in the doorway and leans against the frame. He's sitting on the bed, facing away from the door with huge headphones sitting awkwardly on his ears. His guitar is balanced precariously on his lap and he alternates between strumming the instrument and pulling a pen from his teeth jotting things in the open notebook sitting next to him, before placing the pen back and repeating. She smiles a little before easing his door closed behind herself and walking forward.

He's so absorbed in what he's doing that he hasn't noticed her yet. She watches him for another moment before slowly walking to the bed. She sits down and he feels the bed dip so he turns to smile at her. She crawls over to where he's sitting (facing the sheet music taped to his wall).

He glances back at her at the feeling of the bed dipping then pulls his head phones off his ears when she crawls over to sit next to him. She doesn't speak for a long moment; he places his headphones, guitar, notebook, and pen on the floor next to his bed, "What's wrong, Case?" He finally asks, his voice barley above a whisper, turning to face her fully.

Even after all this time she's still a little shocked that he knows her this well. She shouldn't be, she knows that. She smiles a little, sadly and doesn't say anything, just drops her head to his shoulder and shakes her head just barley, just once.

It's _such_ a Casey thing to do and after everything he occasionally still gets surprised that he's who she goes to. He doesn't know what's wrong with her, but he knows something's up. She's tried hard to cover it up; tear tracks carefully wiped away, hair in loose waves around her face, he's not sure how but he _knows_ something's up just like he _knows_ she's not ready to talk about it. He wraps his arm around her shoulders and presses a kiss to the top of her head.

-- One Year Ten Months Nineteen Days Ago --

They've been at school for less than a week, but she's all ready homesick. She doesn't really get along with her roommate (a pretty blonde girl from the States that she's sure Derek will eventually date) but she's not okay with that so every time she sees Amber she smiles and says hello.

Classes don't even start for another couple of weeks, she's all ready bought all her books and (she'll never admit it but) she's thinking of going home. She physically shakes the thought out of her head – she'd have to ask Derek for the Prince and he'd never let her live down being home sick this early in the game (even though the night before when she talked to Lizzie on the telephone they'd heard Marti saying goodnight to Smrek on the other phone).

She actually hadn't talked to Derek since the day before they left for Queens. She knew that he and Emily hand broken up (friendly– neither wanted to do the whole long distance thing) and she tried to call him the night Emily told her, but he didn't answer; probably screening his calls.

The day before they left for school her and Derek decided not to tell people they were step-siblings ('I do _not_ need Klutzilla interfering with my rep in college too' were Derek's exact words). The next morning, her, Lizzie and Mom had loaded all her belongings and driven to Queens in the new (er) car. They helped her unload all her things before driving the short distance to Derek's apartment to pick up George, Edwin, and Marti who'd ridden down with Derek in the Prince and driving back to London.

-- One Year Nine Months Seventeen Days Ago --

Derek's pretty sure he's never been this nervous. Yeah, he sometimes (always) freaks out a little (lot) before a hockey game, but this is so much more than that. He knows that his scholarship (future) depends on the next few hours and he tries to focus on the coach and not the fear as that thought floats through his mind. He knows that these try outs should be a breeze, but if he can't make the cut then they'll yank his scholarship and he can't ask his dad and Nora to pay for more of his education (he and Casey both got scholarships – his athletic and hers academic – but neither are full scholarships) especially not now. He pushes thoughts of the new baby out of his head because for some reason it really freaks him out to think about.

Everyone skates out and Derek takes a deep breath and lets instinct take over when his blade hit ice. There are few people in the stands; friends and girlfriends of hockey team hopefuls and few random parents who clearly don't understand that college means letting go. Derek doesn't pay much attention – he's stressed enough as it is and maybe it's (defiantly) lame but he sort of wishes he could look out and see Marti cheering for him.

The group comes together around the coach and Derek grips his hockey stick tight so his hands won't shake. The coach gives them the play and as he's skating out to position when his eyes catch Casey's from the top of the bleachers (he's so surprised that he all most trips) but after the initial shock wears off he feels himself relax.

He makes the team, and lets Casey take him out for lunch the next Saturday after the first official practice.

-- Present Day.--

Derek runs his hand up and down her spine lightly a few times and looks at her out of the corner of his eye before sighing softly and moving so he's laying on his back with his arm around Casey who he's pulled with him so she's now lying next to him with her head on his chest (she settles easily next to him – he'd moved like this because he knows she likes to lay like this).

His splayed fingers play through her hair and when he hears her sniffle and feels her shake a little he kisses the top of her head, "Its okay, Case. It'll be okay." his voice is barley above a whisper but apparently it breaks something in her because the floodgates open and he feels her tears soak onto his chest through his shirt in a matter of seconds. It causes him actual, physical pain that she's this upset, this sad, but he doesn't know what to do so he tightens his arms around her and rubs her back and runs his fingers through her hair and whispers nonsensical and (he hopes) soothing things in her ear, dropping an occasional kiss to the top of her head.

In the beginning of their relationship (or whatever this is) he'd tried to play by the normal rules – no tears, no commitments, nothing serious over a month, etcetera. But she knows him way to well for that, and had years of practice on calling him on his shit so that hadn't lasted all that long.

-- One Year Eight Months Seventeen Days Ago --

Casey had just spent a little over two hours getting ready (she didn't like the idea that she was one of _those_ girls but she justified it with the fact that her boyfriend was coming to visit her in college for the very first time). She glanced at herself in the mirror – make up perfect, hair straight, she smiles at her reflection, tugs at her skirt a little and says a smiley "See you later" to her roommate (Amber rolls her eyes and throws a hostile "whatever" back, but Casey doesn't even notice).

Casey's sitting at a booth in the restaurant for ten minutes before she sends Truman a text message (hey – all most here?). Another ten minutes pass with nothing and she starts making excuses for him; maybe he got lost, or traffic is bad, and it's not responsible to text and drive. She when the waitress gives her a sympathetic look she just orders a diet coke and tries not to stare at the clock on the wall.

Another twenty minutes pass and she calls him. It rings four times before his voice mail picks up (Hey Truman, it's me. Did I screw up the times or something? Call me back.)

One hour and twenty-seven minutes pass (not that she been obsessively watching the seconds tick by on her cell phone or anything) when her phone beeps twice – notifying her of a text message. She jumps a little before she picks it up because she's been staring at it so long she'd kind of forgotten it made noise. (4got we had plans. Sry long distance isn't gonna work 4 me. By Case) She doesn't even know how to respond to that, so she doesn't. She drops her phone into her bag and throws some cash on the table for her soda (and a little extra because her waitress didn't make fun of her once – even when it was probably obvious to everyone but her that she was being stood up) and walks out.

She walks outside and the cool air hits her face and she can feel tears pricking at her eyes. It's only at that moment that she realizes she has no where to go. It's not like she can go home and ask her mom and Lizzie to make her feel better. And even though she was sure she'd go off to college and have a fantastic sister like relationship with her roommate, that just hadn't panned out and she did not want to go back to the dorm and listen to Amber tell her that it was stupid to think her high school boyfriend would still want her.

She walks to the fountain in the center of the shopping center about half a block away and sits on one of the benches, far enough away that she won't be bothered. When it starts to rain lightly, she doesn't even look up, because yeah…of course that's how this day ends.

Derek is walking his date, Alissa, back to her dorm building when he sees a girl sitting at a bench on the opposite side of the fountain. He has to do a double take because it's raining and she's kind of far away but he knows without really even having to think about it that it's Casey (he lived with her for far to long, clearly, he's lucky they moved out when they did).

He goes back and forth about what to do internally while Alissa talks about her English Lit class. He finally decides that if he left Casey out here all night to catch pneumonia, Nora would probably be pissed.

He turns to face Alissa, "I am so sorry but…" he starts and explains that he totally forgot something and has to take care of it. He lies like it's breathing so she believes him. He hails a cab and holds the umbrella over her while she steps in, he gives to her for her walk to the building from the car pool and she smiles nervously before kissing his cheek and she blushes when he gives the taxi driver money for her fare.

He watches the taxi fade before he walks over to Casey. He sits down, silent for a moment and she doesn't even react to him. She must have been out here for a while because she is _soaked_. "I know this is probably normal behavior where you're from, but here on Earth we take cover when it rains". (always open with a joke).

He knows something is really wrong when she doesn't respond, just nods her head a little and stares straight ahead. "Spacey -" he starts but she cuts him off.

"I think I'm an idiot" she says and when he just looks at her (too easy) she pulls her cell phone out of her bag, pulls up a text and hand it to him.

He holds his hand over the phone to protect it from the increasing rain and reads Truman's text. At that moment he'd like nothing more than to hit Truman. "He's the idiot, case" he says handing her phone back to her. She takes it and drops it back in her bag, but says nothing.

"You should get back to the dorms" he says as he stands. She just shakes her head. He rolls his eyes, "you've got to get out of the rain, Case…" she shrugs, "just come to the apartment then." She finally looks up at him, surprise and skepticism etched into her features. "You can sleep on the couch…I think Andy's staying at his girlfriend's tonight anyway"

She finally stands and starts to walk with him. She tries to pull her skirt down a little and her shirt up (she won't be _that girl_, not ever again). They're about half way to Derek's apartment when he wordlessly takes off his leather jacket and drapes it over her shoulders (they're both all ready drenched, but for some reason it makes her feel a lot better).

-- One Year Eight Months Eight Days Ago --

Derek's in the building and down the hall when he realizes that Casey's dorm is the only one left in this hallway. He wonders if some one is playing a joke on him and he pulls the torn off piece of notebook paper from his pocket and looks at the address scrawled on it. It's then that he realizes that Amber must be Casey's roommate Amber.

He rolls his eyes at himself a little. He hadn't really seen much of Casey (outside of the algebra class they share) since her break up with Truman. She'd brought his jacket to algebra the next day (after wearing it home before he woke up in the morning) and asked him not to talk about it. He had nodded and three days a week they sit at their desks (hers in front of his – and he's only pulled her hair a few times) and don't talk about it about (as loudly as you can).

He walks to the door and shakes himself out of his thoughts before knocking. Amber swings the door open (she's pretty, blonde and in a short skirt. They met in the cafeteria so he doesn't know much about her) and while she's talking and grabbing her jacket and impossibly tiny purse he catches sight of Casey. She's in the corner of the room, legs tucked under her, an algebra book he recognizes balanced on her lap (and that's weird, because he's sure they didn't have home work and nothing was said about tests or quizzes Monday) she doesn't even look up and he wonders idly if she knows he's there.

Amber stops talking and Derek's not sure what she said but he's great at this so winging it is a non-issue. He slides his arm around her shoulders and leads her out.

When he walks Amber home after dinner, she's talking and he's understanding why she doesn't like Casey. Amber is like the anti-Casey and that sort of appeals to him (except she's just moved to Queens from Ohio and she giggles at the way he says 'about' and she's hot, but that's going to get annoying).

When they get to her door she opens it and invites him inside. He tells her he has hockey practice in the morning (which is true, but also dosen't want to do anything with Casey a few yards away) and should get home. As he's saying this he sees Casey in the same chair she was in when he picked Amber up. Her legs are still tucked under her and her book is still balanced on her lap, but now her eyes are closed and her head is leaned back awkwardly against the chair. He's torn between wanting to move her (her legs and going to hurt tomorrow and her neck will be stiff) and wanting to pour freezing cold ice water over her (it _is_ Casey, and the shriek would be hilarious). But in this world (college) they hardly even know each other, so he does neither. Instead, he kisses Amber lightly about says something non-committal about hanging out again soon before walking back to his apartment.

-- One Year Eight Months Two Days Ago --

They get paired together for a project in algebra (they have no idea why the universe keeps doing this to them). The professor puts the list up after class and they both check it twice before making plans to meet up and work out the equations.

She knocks on his apartment door (she's still a little bitter Derek got a two bedroom apartment and a roommate while she shares a eight by ten cell with a girl who hates her, but her scholarship included housing in the dorms and his didn't and an apartment was less expensive than the dorms) and hears two voices from inside; "It's open"

"You shouldn't leave you door unlocked, it's dangerous" she snaps as Derek by way of greeting (he just rolls his eyes and dramatically locks it behind her). "Hey, Andy" She smiles at Derek's roommate.

"Hey Case" he kisses her cheek, "I'm heading out" he says looking around for his keys.

"I hope I'm not kicking you out" she says placing her backpack on the table which wavers a little under its weight.

"Plans with Jennifer" he answers with a smile and Derek makes some crack about how much time Andy spend with his girlfriend and Andy returns with a joke about how Derek doesn't have one.

"Later Case" he smiles, "Derek" Andy flips him the bird as he's walking out (and of course Derek gets along famously with _his_ roommate).

"Shall we?" Derek asks, grabbing his algebra book and notebook off the table and falling back onto the couch. She rolls her eyes but grabs her book bag and sits on the opposite end of the couch and tells him the plan she's made for getting this done (she'd made a list of how to best accomplish the tasks but he'd crumpled that up and thrown it the second it left her backpack).

Twenty minutes later Derek's up and going through everything he owns looking for his cell phone. It's driving her crazy, "Der-rek, could you please take this seriously?!"

"Oh, it's very serious. I'm starving and I can't find my phone" he doesn't even look up when he says it so she goes back to work and kicks his phone under the couch (he doesn't find it for another fifteen minutes when it rings).

A few minutes after that Derek walks back from his room (after ordering pizza) and sees Casey still bent over her book, working in the living room (his mind flashes back to seeing her when he dropped Amber off and he smiles a little). He can tell she's struggling with the problem she's (their) on so he sits next to her and looks over her shoulder at the equation. He sees the issue immediately - one of the variables has been solved incorrectly – so he pulls the pencil out of her hand, ignoring her protests, and changes the variable. After that the solution is obvious.

She turns to look at him (he's a lot closer than she thought), "How did you do that?" she breaths out (it's not that he's better than her at math, he's not better than her at anything).

He shrugs, "fresh eyes I guess" he answers voice oddly low. They're closer than they maybe should be and when he reaches out to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear he's pretty sure he's not even in control, (he swears he feels) Casey's leaning into the touch and for some reason he can't quite breath.

The sound of the doorbell is deafening and they jump apart. He runs a hand through his hair as he stands and walks over to the door. When he pulls out his wallet he turns so Casey can't see his shaking hands.

He sets the pizza box down on the couch next to Casey and walks to the kitchen, pulling two sodas out of the refrigerator.

Casey flips open the pizza box and smiles, half meat lovers (Derek) and half veggie (defiantly her). She jumps when something cold hits her shoulder and Derek's laughing at her as she pulls the soda from his hand.

This was okay. They could just pretend that whatever just happened between them didn't (because, really, nothing did) and they could go back to life. Everything could back to normal, and things would be…fine.

-- Present Day –

Her breathing slows down, and her tears start to dry and she rubs her eyes until it starts to hurt. Then, she feels Derek's fingers lightly circle her wrist, "Case" her name is a sigh and she nods a little.

After a few moments, she shifts so she's on her stomach, propped up with a hand on Derek's opposite side and her other hand resting lightly on his closer shoulder, her hip resting against his. She slowly opens her eyes to look into his and similes a little when both his hands come up and tuck her hair behind her ears then lightly rest on her cheeks. "I love you" she whispers her voice breaking a little as it rids its self of left-over tears.

His thumbs move in a slow back and forth rhythm over her cheeks and he smiles softly, "I love you too, Case" he whispers.

She smiles before leaning down to kiss him, She giggles lightly when her hair falls from behind her ears and around their faces. Derek pulls his hand through her hair and when she pulls away from the kiss he trail his thumb lightly under her red-rimmed eyes.

She turns her head slightly and kisses him palm, "thanks…" she mumbles into his hand and when his eyebrows crease together in confusion she adds "for letting me cry"

He opens his mouth to say something but instead just nods. "Do you want to talk about it?" he asks and when she shakes her head and a stray tear falls he runs the back of his finger across her cheek to pull it away.

-- One Year Seven Months Fourteen Days Ago --

Derek hits the puck and it flies into the net and everyone cheers. She claps, even though she (still) doesn't totally understand hockey.

She's been to every one of his games since they arrived at Queens. If they're fighting she slips in the back and sits by the door so she can run out as soon as the games over. And if things are (relatively) docile she sits in the front (sometimes Andy comes and tries to explain the game to her) and occasionally Derek invites her out to eat with the team after (it's always chaotic and fun and Derek tells her random stories about his team mates between bites).

-- One Year Six Months Twenty Nine Days Ago --

It's been a long day; Casey and Derek have been helping Andy pack boxes. He's decided to move in with his girlfriend, Jennifer next term. They've got a new apartment (more centered between school and where Jennifer works) so Derek's been left with this one without even having to fight for it. He knows he'll have to get a roommate (he won't ask George and Nora to pay the full rent on the apartment even if life without a roommate would seriously rock).

After six hours, several trips between Derek's apartment and (what's now) Andy and Jennifer's, and a toast Casey and Derek are headed back to Derek's apartment having told Andy to enjoy his new place, they could finish cleaning up.

They walk in and there is stuff _everywhere_, but at the same time it's a little empty (the coffee table, lamp, chair and kitchen table were all Andy's and went with him, along with some of the kitchen appliance and obviously everything from his room). There is, however, bubble wrap and packing peanuts littering the room in place of the belongings that have been taken.

They spend a couple of hours cleaning before they decide it looks good (enough) and when Derek comes back from dropping the bags of trash in the dumpsters Casey's sitting in his chair (the only thing left in the common room other than the couch) looking at papers.

He doesn't say anything but when he walks in she rolls her eyes and starts to get up anyway, he puts his hand out in a stay there gesture and she looks surprised but she sits back down and Derek throws himself on the couch (dad and Nora gave him the couch from the house and bought a new one when he moved into the apartment).

"What are you doing?" he asks moving into a sitting position. Finals are over, there aren't many people left on campus, even they'll be leaving for break tomorrow, they only stayed to help Andy.

She holds up the paper so he can see and it's the course selection form everyone is supposed to fill out for next term and turn into the office before they leave for break. He nods and stands to try to find his, he finally finds it and turns his search into one for a pen. He can't find one so he finally goes over to his chair and gestures for Casey to move (she rolls her eyes and sits on the couch) he pulls the cushion up and pulls out a pen and three quarters.

"There are probably things living in there" Casey mumbles and blushes a little when Derek holds up her pro/con lists for all the courses she's considering for next term.

"Seriously?" he asks handing the papers to her and flopping onto the couch next to her.

"I want to make the right decisions" she says.

"So, what are you taking next term?" he asks looking at her blank course selection form.

She takes a long beat before she answers, "I don't know" she takes a deep breath "you?"

He shrugs. Honestly, he hadn't really planned on filling his out. He figured he could just take whatever classes they put him in. "Whatever" he says.

"You have to plan for your future, Derek…" she starts but she knows better than to lecture him, but she can't help it. "Here" she picks up his form from the couch and puts it in his lap "You should take pre-calculus, it's the next step from algebra and you're good at math and you should take a history class, you didn't take any this term"

He rolls his eyes, he sucks at history; it's a lot of remembering dates about crap he doesn't care about but he knows Casey loves the subject. He does like math though so he places an x in the box next to pre-calculus, "You should take that too, and get your math out of the way, since you suck at it and all" She looks really upset at that so he sighs a little, "we should both take history and pre-calc that way one of us is good at both of them" he says and ends the statement by marking an x by history 114.

She doesn't say anything but she does mark both subjects with a small x and they both request the same time slot for the classes. They pick the reminder of their classes separately and Casey takes both of their request forms, "I'll drop them off on my way back to the dorms."

Derek nods before noticing the time, "You can take the Prince back to the dorm, and just bring it back tomorrow and we'll leave for home then" he says.

"I can walk, it's fine" she answers.

"You can barley walk in daylight, Klutzilla, and its dark now" he answers, looking for his keys. He walks back towards his room and passes in front of what used to be Andy's room and is now just empty. It sucks that he found a roommate he actually liked and now has to hope he has that same good fortune twice.

"I'm sorry Andy had to move" Casey's voice breaks him from his thoughts and he says nothing, just walks into his room and grabs his keys off his dresser. He tosses them to her and doesn't say anything when she misses them and has to grab them off the floor.

He nods at her once and she gathers her things and the class sign up forms before walking out.

-- One Year Six Months Twenty Eight Days Ago --

Casey wakes up early and gathers her things for the trip and subsequent three weeks back home. Amber has already left so she blasts her radio and wonders idly if it will be weird being back home as she folds her clothes and carefully places them in her suite case.

She finishes her last minute packing and half carries half pushes her suite case to the Prince. It takes her three tries to lift it into the car. She stops by a coffee shop on the way to Derek's apartment and gets coffee and doughnuts for them both.

When she gets to Derek's she's balancing the drinks and pastries in her hands and kicking Derek's door in place of knocking. She does that for a full two minutes before she remembers that she has Derek's keys and just lets herself in.

"Derek" she calls as she closes the door behind herself. "Derek" she yells again, this time more annoyed at his lack of response. She puts the coffees and doughnuts down on the kitchen counter and walks back toward his room.

"Derek" she's yelling as she rounds the corner to his open room. He barley even moves. She stands on his bed and jumps a few times yelling "Earthquake" (he did it to her once).

He sits straight up and she falls to her knees in his been before sitting down next to him with a smile. "You're hilarious" he deadpans. He looks around for a moment before grabbing her wrist and looking at her watch.

He inadvertently pulls her toward him slightly to make out the time displayed on her watch and its then that she notices that he'd been sleeping shirtless and for a brief moment she's captivated by his chest until she hears him whining, "It's eight thirty, Casey" She looks up at him and it brings their faces way closer together that either one of them is comfortable with.

"Yeah" they're caught in a stare and her voice sounds small even to her. Neither of them blinks and when his hand drops from her wrist and settles lightly on her hip she knows that this can't end well. She swallows and her hand drops from where he'd been holding it to rest on his arm.

Derek holds eye contact and mumbles her name and she could swear that he's leaning forward (like she is) and when her phone rings Derek closes his eyes tightly (trying to bring himself back to reality) and she jumps. She feels like crying so she takes a few deep breaths and stands trying to control her shaking hands as she pulls her phone from her pocket and walks out of Derek's room.

Derek changes clothes and walks out of his room in time to hear her finishing up a conversation with her mom. He sees the coffee and doughnuts on the counter and grabs the glazed one and puts it in the microwave for 15 seconds while he eats the other. He starts to drink his coffee and leans against the counter while Casey finishes up her call.

Casey walks into the kitchen, "You ate my doughnut?" she asked, annoyance evident in her voice.

He rolls his eyes as the microwave beeps and he pulls out the glazed doughnut and hands it to her.

She smiles as she takes it. "Are you ready to go?" she asks, ignoring what happened (or didn't) a few minutes ago.

"All most" he answers and washes his hands before turning to face Casey. "Look, Case, about…" he trails off but points back toward his room and both of them know what he's talking about. He knows she's freaking out right now (Casey freaks out over everything) and he's a little concerned about this one himself so he shakes his head a little before continuing, "It was nothing, you know. We're just tired"

Casey nods, "we should head home" she says instead of an actually answering so he nods and gathers his things.

The car ride home is pretty normal. They're back to fighting over radio stations and where to stop for lunch by the "Now Leaving Kingston, Come Back Soon" sign ten minutes from campus.

-- One Year Six Months Twenty Seven Days Ago --

She's lying in her old bed in her old room and its weird feeling but at the same time it's oddly comforting. When she and Derek arrived home yesterday it was to an empty house.

"Our families suck" Derek said upon the realization the house was empty. She had an urge to correct him, say that it's just one family now, but that takes her mind back to his bedroom and she can't deal with that (and maybe the idea of it still being to separate families is nice) so she just laughed.

He took his bags up to his room and watched her struggle with hers for almost twenty minutes before sighing theatrically and pulling her bags to the top of the stairs and dropping everything unceremoniously. "It would have killed you to take them the extra twenty yards to my room?"

He just shrugged and walked into his old room. His bed is in his apartment no so there is an old futon in its place. So many of his things are in Kingston now…it barley even feels like his room. Casey's room is much more intact, her bed and most of her bigger things still there as she'd had much less space to work with in the dorm.

Their families (family?) had come home not too much later and apologized for not greeting them, they hadn't thought they'd be home until later. Nora made a nice dinner and it was easy to fill conversation.

Nora had wanted to talk to Casey after dinner, but she was tired so they'd postponed until today. Now Nora was in the kitchen, pulling things out of the cupboards to make eggs and french toast for the kids, occasionally pausing to rub her expanding stomach. Off to the side, on the counter under her purse is an envelope with the words "To the parents/guardians of Casey McDonald". She didn't think in all of Casey's years of existence she'd ever gotten a letter addressed like that.

In all honesty, Nora was a little relived when Casey asked if they could postpone their conversation last night. She's hoping that in the next few minutes, before the kids start waking up, she'll think of a way to talk about this with Casey that won't make her crazy but so far she's been unsuccessful.

About ten minutes later Casey comes down the stairs wearing her bunny slippers and wrapped in a blue robe, and Nora is _so_ thankful for these small moments when she can look at Casey and still see the little girl she once was.

"Morning mom, George" Casey says as George rounds the corner to come upstairs.

"Morning sweetie" Nora hands her a glass and the orange juice.

It's about fifteen minutes of talk about college before Derek comes down the stairs "That futon is horrible" he says in place of a greeting grabbing a glass and the orange juice off the counter.

Nora takes a moment to gather her thoughts and takes a deep breath before walking to her purse and pulling the letter from underneath. "I'm glad the two of you are down here first" she starts and both Casey and Derek turn to look at her, "we really need to talk to you" George stands just behind her and she wants to call him a wuss but she knows that will lead them too far off topic.

"Case, I don't really know how to say this, but the scholarship you got was reduced" Casey's eyes get huge and Derek looks over at her, "The funding for the scholarship was reduced so they had to modify all the scholarships so no one would have to loose theirs"

Even Derek's smart enough to keep his mouth shut and Casey looks around the room frantically for a moment before, "What does this mean, how much did I loose?"

"Room and board, and I know you're going to hate this, but…you're going to have to move into Derek's apartment" Casey's mouth opens immediately to protest but Nora just keeps talking "Case, we've done the math a hundred ways and the dorms are just too expensive and with Andrew moving out of the apartment the timing is perfect"

Casey and Derek both put up a fight but in the end they can't ask for money that isn't there, especially not now. So they agree to leave a week before breaks actually over so Casey can move in.

-- One Year Six Months Twenty One Days Ago --

They fall back into their old routines pretty easily. Derek hangs out with Sam and Ralph and Casey hangs out with Emily and sometimes it feels like they never even left.

There are conversations at the dinner table and Lizzie and Edwin are growing up so fast it's all most scary. Casey likes that she can see some of herself in Liz, but that she's also different enough to not make the same mistakes that she did. Marti is loving the idea of being the _big_ sister for once and she rubs Nora's stomach all the time, talking to little baby inside.

When Casey goes up to her room, however, she starts to feel different. Before her room hadn't looked much different (the bed, desk and dresser were all still there those things having been standard in the dorms). Now all those things were gone, George having had some business all most half way to Kingston dropped them off at the apartment when he was done (with the help of some students stranded there over break and willing to help for twenty bucks).

It's starting to sink it that this isn't really her home anymore, but the apartment isn't either – that's Derek's. She's starting to feel how she did when her family first moved in with the Venturi's from Toronto and the thought of going through all that again has her feeling helpless.

-- One Year Six Months Sixteen Days Ago --

The drive back to Kingston takes almost seven hours with all the stops that Derek makes them take. They do finally make it though and they go to Casey's (old) dorm room first to gather what's left of her things there. It takes a hour for her to collect all her things (Derek lying on the now bare bed and watching doesn't help).

After a little over a hour and several laps around the tiny room, Casey is finally satisfied that all her belongings are safely in the Prince. She pulls the dorm key off her key ring and lays it on her old mattress (even though she knows the locks will change before everyone comes back from break – and all residents will receive new keys).

They're in the car driving to the apartment and Casey pulls her feet on the seat, circling her arms around her legs and drops her head to her knees. She looks out her window (away from Derek) and watches the buildings pass in silence. She never particularly liked her room mate and since the dorms are tiny and uncomfortable so she was never partial to that either. But this feels way to much like being ripped from Toronto so she closes her eyes tightly and tries not to think about it.

* * *

Chapter two coming soon, please review!!


	2. Chapter 2

Please see authors note and disclaimer in chapter one  
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

-- Present Day --

After a few minutes she pulls herself into a sitting position and looks at him, still lying on his back. She smiles, but it's unconvincing at best. She takes a deep breath "Dennis isn't coming" she says it quickly (like pulling off a band-aide she thinks). Her eyes dart everywhere but at Derek.

He swears under his breath. Awhile ago Casey had finally decided that she wanted to tell her father about them, so she'd called him and after rescheduling once he said that he said he had some business in their area around now and could swing by for dinner. Casey had gone into super cleaning mode. Ever since Casey moved in, the apartment was always clean but now, it was borderline scary. The fridge was stocked and she had even cleaned his room (that had been fight later). She was planning to cook an elaborate dinner (she had even made some of the food lat night).

Derek sits up and places a hand on her arm, "Did he have to reschedule? Case, it's not that big of a deal"

Casey's laugh sound more like a sob and he scoots closer to her, wrapping his arm around her shoulder. "I guess he called the house last night to talk to Liz and Marti picked up and when my dad said he was coming out here today Marti thought he knew and told him." Casey pauses to catch her breath. "I don't think he's ever going to speak to me again." Casey says and looks at Derek.

He leans over and presses his lips to her forehead softly and her father's words filter through her head; _it's disgusting, Casey, he's you're brother, it's sick, it's incest. _She closes her eyes tightly and leans into Derek.

-- One Year Six Months Fourteen Days Ago --

Casey's headed back to the apartment form the Student Union. She'd had to change her address to the apartment from the dorms so on her way back she stopped and picked up her and Derek's schedules.

She gets back to the apartment and has to try for a couple of minutes to unlock the door (her key sticks, she's not surprised something is wrong with it). She opens the door and walks straight into a huge box with a photo of a kitchen table on it. "Ouch" she mumbles looking at the table she and Derek picked out a few days ago (after much argument). It must have gotten delivered while she was out. She wonders idly how the hell they're going to put that thing together while she throws their schedules on the counter.

Derek's not there so she opens hers and for the most part she's happy. She notices the pre-calc class and remembers that before they were forced to live together she and Derek requested that and European History together. She opens his schedule and sees that they are in the classes together and it hits her that they are going to be spending way too much time together this term.

Casey leaves to go shop for some random still needed things for the apartment and about half an hour later Derek comes back from checking in with the hockey coach. He sees his schedule laid out on the kitchen counter and looks it over. It's not bad, but he can't remember a reason why he'd sign up for a European History class. He figures there had to be a reason…and then it hits him; he and Casey signed up for that and pre-calculus together.

Then he can't remember why he'd do that.

-- One Year Six Months Twelve Days Ago --

Casey's sitting in the floor in the dinning room area (or at least where they're putting the table) trying to assemble the new table. She's dumped out the contents of the box and sorted all the parts and the photo on the instructions sheet makes it look like it should be simple form this point forward but she's been trying to make it work for the past hour and so far nothing she's made has even vaguely resembled a table.

Derek comes in and almost trips on the table leg pile she's made by the door. She's tempted to call him Klutzilla but she made the piles herself and she trips every time she gets up so it'd probably be bad karma. "What the hell is going on here?" Derek asks amusement obvious in his voice as he looks at the mess Casey's sitting in the center of (eye of the storm).

"I'm putting the table together" she says it like its obvious and rolls her eyes.

"Really?" Derek asks sarcastically walking over and through the disaster area to get to the kitchen. The only good thing about Casey moving in is that now the kitchen is always stocked. He pulls a soda out of the fridge and the chips down from on top of the fridge and sits in his chair. He watches Casey struggle with the table for a full thirty minutes before sighing dramatically, "You're a joke" he tells her sitting down on the floor across form her.

She throws a screw at his head and winces when it misses and he has to lean back to pick it up off the floor.

Forty-five minutes later the table looks done so the stand up and flip it over. It wavers a little and they both hold their breath. It looks sturdy so Derek puts his back pack on it and it makes a creaking sound before one of the legs slides out of it's slot under the table and whole thing pitches in that direction. Derek grabs the table and holds it up, Casey can't stop laughing "I'm the joke, huh?" she asks and he kicks the wrench in her direction. She reconnects the leg and she smiles broadly when the table can hold both their backpacks.

-- One Year Six Months Two Days Ago --

So far, anyway, the acclimation process to living together has been relatively easy. They stay out of each others rooms (ish) and made rules for the apartment which, so far, neither has broken. Casey is starting wonder if half their problems weren't everyone else and not actually each other.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays Casey's last class gets lets out at 5:00 in the afternoon so she goes home and makes dinner. It ranges in complexity from cereal and toast to real meals of lasagna and bread sticks.

The first time it happens Derek's sure it's some kind of trap but its chili so he just stares at her skeptically while he eats. Casey's excited because she could never cook in the dorms and Nora always hated cooking so no one ever really taught her. But she picked up a cookbook at the used book store near campus and is determined to learn at least the basics.

-- One Year Five Months Thirteen Days Ago --

Casey's just loaded the groceries into the Prince, so she takes the cart back to its corral and goes to leave.

She pulls on her seat belt and checks her mirrors before she pulls out of her parking space. She pulls out of the store and she's not on the road for even a full minute when another car slams into her door. Her window crashes in on impact and she can feel glass cutting through her skin.

She realizes she's shaking when she brings her hand up to her temple where blood is starting to seep through. She's sitting in the car, staring out at the other driver who looks, to her anyway, relatively unfazed. She swallows hard before stepping out of the car. She's about to walk over to the other car when a police car pulls over and stops next to the Prince.

She and the other driver have to give statements. That lasts for all of about two minutes (the time it takes for everyone involved to realize that the guy who ran into Casey is falling down drunk). It's not even late, a little before 10:00pm on a Wednesday, but the guy was headed to a party and decided to "pre-game" at his house first. She can't believe this is happening to her.

The officer offers to take her to a hospital when he sees the blood dripping from her temple but she remembers the anatomy cycle of her biology class junior year (head wound bleed a lot, just by their nature) and declines. "It doesn't really hurt, if it gets worse I'll go" she promise and the officer nods and gives her a claims number and tells her that she can her the car fixed anywhere, to just give the number to the shop and it'll be covered by insurance. It hits her then that Derek's going to kill her.

The car is in bad condition (the front drivers window is busted, the alignment is off, and there is a dent) but it's not un-drive-able and the apartment is only a few blocks away so Casey gathers the glass from her seat and throws it in a nearby trash can before driving back to the apartment.

She parks and stares at the apartment building for a long moment, trying to get herself to stop shaking. She keeps telling herself that it was a minor accident but it doesn't seem to matter and the more she tries not to shake the harder her body seems to vibrate.

She takes a deep breath and grabs her bags of food before going inside. Derek, who's been watching television since before she left doesn't even look up when she walks in, "What'd you get?" She doesn't answer, just walks to the kitchen table and drops everything she's holding there.

She finally turns to face him even though he hasn't looked away from the television, "I'm gonna get it fixed tomorrow morning. I would have done it tonight but I didn't know where to go. I am so sorry." All of her words tumble on top of each other and she's still shaking and the blood from her cut is starting to mingle with tears and she feels _so_ stupid.

Derek has a come back all ready (Spacey, when you speak that quickly humans can't understand when you're saying) but it dies on his lips when he glances over and sees blood tracking down her face. He jumps off the couch and crosses the small space over to her, "What the hell happened, Case?" he asks and pulls her hair to the side so he can look at her temple. He realizes that she's shaking and he closes his eyes for a moment (he has no idea how to deal with this) before rubbing his hands up and down her arms a few times "Case…" he breaths out her name before deciding on a loose plan. "Stay right here, okay?" he asks and doesn't move until she nods.

He goes to his room and grabs a zip up hoodie that's big even on him before going to the kitchen and grabbing a washcloth and filling a bowl with water. He goes to the living room and sets the water and washcloth on the coffee table by the couch then goes back to Casey, still standing where he asked her to stay (which is the biggest indication of all that she's really freaked out). He pulls the sweater around her shoulders and she pulls her arms through when he lets his hand fall to the small of her back to lead her to the couch. She sits and he sits next to her and it scares him that she's not arguing, that she's letting him tell her what to do. And it really scares him that she's shaking, especially since he can see that the cut isn't that bad, she just in shock.

He starts to wipe the blood away from her face (he tries to be gentle but really he's not that guy) and she takes a deep breath, "I wrecked the Prince" she pauses and he has to make a conscious effort not to. "I just pulled out of the parking lot and he was drunk and he just slammed into me…"

He's cleaning the last of the blood, what's dried around her temple, and he's unbelievable angry that someone would run into Casey (it's all most impressive, the girl has to be the safest, most cautious driver in the world) but he's trying to keep his anger in check. She's clearly horrified and for once he doesn't want to make it worse. "It's okay, Case, it's not a big -"

She cuts him off "The officer said that we can get it fixed anywhere. Insurance will cover it, he gave me a claims number," he words all collide into each other and she finally takes a breath, "I'm sorry" her voice is so small and defeated and Derek hates it.

"Casey, we'll get it fixed tomorrow, it's fine" he says and she nods a little. He pulls the last trace of blood off her skin with the wash cloth and presses his lips lightly to her temple, a little above the now visible cut. He's not sure what possessed him to do it but when he moves to place the wash cloth in the water bowl he notices that her shaking is starting to subside.

He smiles weakly at Casey before handing her the television remote. She laughs once before nodding a little and changing the channel.

When Derek wakes up a few hours later Casey's asleep and her head is on his shoulder. He tries to move, but when ever he does the hand Casey has tangled in the hem of his shirt tightens a little so he places a pillow on his lap and moves Casey so she's lying down, her head on the pillow. He turns to Sports Center and lets his hand play idly in her hair until he falls back to sleep.

-- One Year Five Months Seven Days Ago --

It's Tuesday evening and Casey is just finishing dinner (salad, pizza, and garlic bread) Derek's helping (standing in the kitchen and occasionally throwing pieces of lettuce at her). She's actually having fun. So far she likes to cook (mostly) and she doesn't hate living with Derek (occasionally).

She's setting plates on the table when someone knocks at the door. "Not it" the both say at the same time.

"Answer the door or no pizza" Casey says and knows she has him when he looks at the pizza still in the oven then walks to the door.

Half of Derek's hockey team is on the other side. "D, man, major party at Joey's place, lets go" one of the team members slings his arm over Derek's shoulders and Derek looks back at Casey.

He makes a random gesture at his step sister and tells them to wait a sec, "You should go" Casey says when he walks over to her.

"I can eat first" he offers half halfheartedly. If she wants him to, he'll stay and eat before he goes (he'll make rude comments about the food and tell her she's lame and his actual friends are cool, but he'll stay and eat).

"That's stupid, you should just go" Casey doesn't understand parties on Tuesdays but there are parties every day in college. She'd rather go to class (she's okay with being called lame – at least she has a future).

He nods once and stares at her the whole time he's pulling his jacket on. He starts to ask her if she's sure she's cool with him bailing but realizes that he's all ready asked and even that's way more than he had to do so he waves once before leaving.

He feels a little bad when he comes home several hours later and there are pieces of pizza wrapped in tin foil with a post-it stuck to the top (his name written in pink ink on the yellow paper).

-- One Year Four Months Twenty Three Days Ago --

They're walking back to the apartment after Euro History. "I have no idea what that crazy man was talking about" Derek says laughing.

Casey laughs and nods a little, "It's not so bad, I can show you tonight after your game if you want"

He nods before, "Oh, actually we're going out after the game. Jerry's throwing a win/loose party." He pauses a moment "You wanna come? Should be awesome."

Casey smiles and nods, "Yeah"

"You can show me that thing this weekend?" he asks.

"Sure" she nods.

Most of their walk is filled with conversations about their history class and as they're walking up the sidewalk leading to their apartment Casey trips on a break in the pavement, Derek's in mid-sentence and he reaches out and grabs her arm, holding her upright until she can do it herself again without ever pausing in what he was saying.

Casey waits all most a full ten minutes for him to call her Klutzilla or make fun of her and smiles when she realizes that it's not coming. She thinks back and realizes that for as much as he makes fun of her, this has happened once or twice a week since they started to hang out more at college (she'll trip and he'll make sure she doesn't fall without even mentioning it).

She realizes, at that moment, how much time her and Derek have been spending together (and that they've kind of been…friends…its weird.)

-- One Year Four Months Nineteen Days Ago --

Casey's dance class is canceled so she goes by the store before walking home. She figures she can make a dinner that will keep, then go to Derek's hockey game, then come home and eat.

She's messing with her key in lock, telling herself for the ten thousandth time that she needs to get a new one (that doesn't stick) when the door just pops open. She's sure Derek forgot to lock it again and she's can't believe that because just a few days ago one of the people upstairs had their apartment broken in to.

She walks in and for a second can't even believe what she's seeing. "Der-rek" she yells and he jumps away from the blond on the couch whose face he was just trying to eat.

"Thought you had dance" Derek stumbles nervously, standing up and moving a slightly away from the girl on the couch.

"Canceled" she says and shakes her head a little. The girl, who Casey doesn't know, looks incredibly uncomfortable so Casey swallows her anger for the moment and looks at Derek, "Can I have a word?" she asks all false calm and nice and Derek knows he's screwed.

He can't think of a way out of it, if he said no and left he'd still have to come home and deal with her later (all his worldly possessions are in the room down the hall). He shrugs and says fine, he goes to follow her down the hall to his room when Beverly stands up, "You know what, I should really go anyway…" she gestures idly at the door and Derek nods his apology, "Good luck at your game, Derek" she smiles and kisses him once before she leaves. When Derek turns around to face Casey she's looking away; disgust etched in her features.

"We weren't even doing anything" Derek says before she can speak. And it's true, mostly. They were kissing, but all clothes were on and hands were plainly visible.

"No dates or hook ups in the apartment" Casey says all most completely monotone. "We agreed, Derek, it was a part of the rules when we were forced to live together again" Casey feels completely betrayed and she has no idea why.

Derek rolls his eyes, "I didn't think you'd be home for another two hours, and since I had to leave before that for my game -"

She cuts him off, "It doesn't matter if I'm here, Derek, there they rules we agreed on!" she's shouting. If Derek had done this when she first had to move in she's pretty sure she wouldn't have even been fazed, but lately it had seemed like they were getting closer. They were more friends/room mates than step siblings that hated each other and had to live together again. She's beyond mad that he betrayed that.

"Look, Case -" he starts and this time it's the alarm on his cell phone that cuts him off, he closes his eyes and sighs, "I have to go, pre game meeting starts in ten" he says and starts to gather his things.

"Whatever" Casey throws back and doesn't move from where she's standing by the door, arms crossed, until she hears the latch click into place behind Derek. Derek knows the next few weeks (until Casey forgives him) will suck and that he'll probably be making his own dinners.

The announcers start to bring everyone out onto the ice and Derek can't help but smiles when he sees Casey in the very last row, right next to the door.

-- Present Day --

"He'll come around, Casey, everyone else has" Derek says and even as the words leave him he knows they mean nothing. Casey rolls her eyes but says nothing. They both know they've been lucky.

All he knows is that doesn't want to sit in bed all day and watch Casey cry and he thinks maybe a distraction would be good for her so he pulls on her hair lightly and laughs when she hits his chest will her balled up fist. "Okay," Derek starts and smiles at Casey when she looks up at him with red eyes; "I, for one, want to know exactly what kind of disaster dinner would have been" he says and slowly stands up. It's kind of early for dinner but whatever, so he extends his hand to her and smiles reassuringly when she takes it.

He pulls her to the kitchen and starts pulling out things she bought for dinner tonight. He holds something up and turns to her "What the hell is this?" he asks.

She nods once and pulls her hands across her face. She sniffles then smiles, "tofu". She giggles at the look on his face.

"Seriously?" he asks and she nods, "we could always go out tonight you know" he says and dodges a spoon she throw at him. She takes the tofu away from him and he leans against the counter and smiles when she starts to prepare the food, rolling his eyes when she gives him tasks.

-- One Year Four Months Twelve Days Ago --

Mid-terms aren't too far off so Casey's in the library studying when her phone goes off. She's pretty sure everyone around her is conspiring to kill her when she picks up, "Liz, I can't really…what…okay…I'll be there" everyone around her is staring but she throws her things in her bag and frantically tries to call Derek.

Derek's just finishing practice when he sees a text from Edwin and sixteen missed calls from Casey. He reads the text first.

Casey answers her phone before the first ring is even complete. "Yeah, I'm at the library"

They don't get back to London for almost seven hours with all the mid-day traffic but when they get to the hospital Nora is still in labor anyway.

Derek and Casey try to entertain the younger kids while George runs back to be with Nora. It doesn't take long for Marti and Edwin to fall asleep so Casey paces while Derek tells her chill and Lizzie watches.

About two hours after Casey and Derek's arrival George comes out to the waiting room looking pale and tells them that all that they have a new baby sister.

-- One Year Four Months Eight Days Ago --

Casey's holding baby Annabelle as they all walk to the door. Derek can't stop staring because Anna's hair all ready looks like Casey's and everyone's been saying that she got Derek's eyes and it's unexplainable how much t freaks him out. What's really weird though, is how good Casey is with this baby.

Casey hands Anna back to Nora and everyone exchanges hugs so Derek and Casey can leave to go back to school, four days was all ready stretching it, especially this close to mid-terms but they promise to come back soon so they good-byes are pretty painless.

-- One Year Three Months Twenty Days Ago --

As much as Marti has loved being the older sister she also misses the attention that comes with being the youngest, so Derek really wants her birthday to be special.

Derek talks his hockey coach into letting him miss weekend practice and picks Casey up from her last class so they can drive through the afternoon and get home for Marti's birthday.

They get back to the house a little before midnight and Nora was supposed to leave decorations out so they could get the place ready but instead there's a note on the kitchen counter saying she wasn't able to make it out, lying over some money. It's hard to begrudge her when you hear Anna's soft cries from the basement.

They get back into the car and drive to a 24 hour store about twenty minutes away. They argue about a theme in the car and finally decide to just throw a birthday party. They get a cake and decorations and things to fill loot bags with and mini pizzas and mini hot dogs and Derek's feeling pretty good about this.

They get home and decorate (mostly Casey decorates and Derek watches). By the time they're done the place actually looks really good. Casey grabs the loot bags and the toys and candy they bought to fill them with and drops them in front of Derek, "It _is _your sister, you can help, you know"

They end up filling twenty loot bags, figuring that even with the extra guests Marti probably managed to sneak in there's no way Nora would let her invite more than that. Casey hides them and the cake in the kitchen and realizes that it's morning.

Derek comes into the kitchen carrying the leftover bits of streamer they'd had to cut off and throws them away. "Not bad right" he says and when walks over to him to look out at the living room she has to agree. She leans against him a little without thinking about it and when she feels his hand on her arm she jumps a little and is sure she's about to be made fun of.

Instead, Derek pulls her around so her back is against the counter and Derek is looming over her. They're caught in this weird stare "what are we…?" Casey trails off when his hand trails lightly up her arm to rest on her shoulder. She blinks once, trying to get this to make sense and the when she opens her eyes her hand is on Derek's chest and they're a fraction of an inch apart.

"Wow!" they hear Marti scream from the bottom of the stairs.

Derek's hand tightens on her shoulder and whatever weird trance they were in is broken. He leans towards her for a brief moment before pushing back to turn towards Marti, "Happy birthday, Smarti" he says pulling his sister into a big hug.

Casey turns around and moves farther into the kitchen. She pulls her hand across her face to wipe away a tear and moves to the sink to get a glass of water.

It seems Marti's scream has woken everyone as Lizzie and Edwin come downstairs and Nora and George (carrying Anna) come up. George hands Anna to Derek while he goes to get something to eat and Casey can't tear her eyes away from Derek, sitting in the floor with Marti, Anna in his arms.

Around noon the girls start arriving, there are fifteen party guests (on a guest list of ten) and it goes pretty smooth. Derek plays games with the girls (and convinces/orders Edwin to help) while Casey makes food and Lizzie helps, asking her all kinds of questions about college. Nora and George stay in the basement with Anna for the most part, not wanting the noise and activity to overwhelm the new baby.

After they eat, everyone watches Marti open gifts before the kid's parents start picking them up.

A few hours later George, Nora, Edwin, Lizzie, Derek, Casey (holding Anna), and Marti all sit down for a happy birthday Marti snack. Later, after Marti's taken a shower (and not a bath because "I'm a big girl now, daddy") she comes downstairs and says thank you to Casey and Derek for coming home special for her and throwing her a party. Derek tells her that she'll always be special and she begs him to read her a story.

Anna's fallen asleep so George and Nora take her downstairs, hoping to get some sleep of their own. Derek follows Marti up the stairs so her can read her Cinderella and Lizzie has soccer and Edwin has hockey (which he took up recently in his never ending quest to be just like Derek) in the morning so they head up stairs as well.

It leave Casey alone in the living room, so she turns to radio on and turns the volume down low so it wont disturb anyone and starts to clean. It's really only then that she realizes how messy the room. Bits of food everywhere and streamers (some falling down and only half attached to the ceiling now) hang everywhere, and wrapping paper liters the floor.

She's been cleaning for about half an hour when she hears someone coming down the stairs. She glances behind her and sees Derek picking up pink and purple streamers from the stairs. She ignores him, taking the trash bag she's filled and placing it by the door before opening a new one and continuing to clean. They go on like that for a while and it's Derek who breaks the silence, "Casey -"

She cuts him off, "I don't really want to talk right now, Derek" she says and he nods even though she can't see him from where she is.

It's silent for another few minutes and Casey's gathers about all the wrapping paper she can carry from this area when she turns around. Derek takes a deep breath and walks over to her, backing her into the corner, "Der-rek" she sighs exasperated and tries to move past him. He moves so she can't and she finally looks up at him. He walks forward, causing her to walk back until she hits the wall lightly. She hadn't realized she was that close to the wall so her skin coming in contact with the cold plaster makes her jumps slightly and drop all the wrapping paper she was holding.

Derek laughs a little as he moves slightly forward, "Case…" he starts be realizes that he has no idea what he actually wants to say.

He's too close now, and she knows that. Knows the chances of Marti running down the stairs and stopping this are all most non-existent this time. Knows she should just push past him and go upstairs and finish cleaning in the morning.

One of his hands moves to rest lightly on her hip and she puts her hands on his shoulders, she's thinking (always) and deciding how hard to push him when she feels his other hand on her cheek. She leans into it, biting her lip and finally looks up at him.

They're way to close and if she moves forward, even at all, she knows with an absolute kind of certainty that their lips will meet. Right until the moment when her hands slips from his shoulders and snake around his neck she's absolutely sure she's going to push him away. But after that, it's like gravity (it just happens), their lips connect and his hand slips from her cheek to her hair and Casey's ready to cry it's just so damn _gentle_.

The kiss intensifies and Casey breaks it off out of the need to breath and Derek moves to trail kisses lightly down her neck. His lips meet hers again and he mumbles her name against her lips and all the sudden she's crashing back to reality.

She pushes him away and ignores that she's suddenly freezing, she steps around so she's no longer cornered, "I don't…we can't…you're my…" she stammers and takes a deep, shaky breath, "We can not do this, Derek" she says and he opens his mouth to respond but she runs upstairs and locks her door behind her before he can.

Later that night Casey's sitting in her bed, looking at the wall that separates her room from Derek's and she can hear his CD player from inside.

Later that night Derek's in his room, staring at the wall that separates his room from Casey's and he can hear her crying from inside.

* * *

I got a lot of hits on chapter one, but not many reviews. Please review!!

Chapter three coming soon!


	3. Chapter 3

Please see chapter one for authors notes and disclaimers.

* * *

-- One Year Three Months Nineteen Days Ago --

Casey comes downstairs around eight in the morning and when so does she sees that all the decoration are cleaned up, the wrapping paper and plates of food are gone and it actually looks really good. She starts to think that maybe what happened last night was a fragment of her sleep deprived imagination.

But then Derek comes down the stairs and pauses when he sees her and she knows it all really happened and she has no idea what to do about it. So she tries to ignore it, "Did you finish cleaning last night?"

"Couldn't sleep" the answer comes quick, "Casey -"

She cuts him off; "you didn't have to do that" he nods a little. He moves closer to her and she starts to ramble about how she would have cleaned this morning and he puts his hands on her hips and she knows he's about to kiss her again and that _can't_ happen so she walks to the other side of the room and looks at him, "Derek," she starts but snaps her mouth shut hen she hears footsteps coming up the stairs and a baby's cries getting loader.

Late that night is the next time they are alone and they sit on opposite ends of the couch and don't talk for an entire commercial break before Casey stands and says something about going to bed. "Wait, Casey" Derek says standing from the couch so he's between her and the stairs. Casey wonders why it always feels like he's trapping her.

"Derek…I just…can't do this" she says it at almost a whisper and runs up the stairs. Derek stands in the living room and watches, wondering how the hell he got himself into this.

-- One Year Three Months Eighteen Days Ago --

The ride back to Kingston is near silent and when they get back to the apartment they both disappear into their rooms.

Casey calls Danny, a cute theater major who asked her out a couple of weeks ago. She'd been really busy and said she couldn't but when she called he was happy to hear from her so they scheduled a date.

All she really knows is that she can't go down a road with Derek that included kissing. They have a little sister with her hair and Derek's eyes and she can't devastate their families (family) like that.

And she hates him, somehow that keeps getting lost in translation.

-- One Year Three Months Fourteen Days Ago --

It turns out Danny is a really great guy; he insisted on paying for dinner, he helps her with her jacket, he opens doors for her; he's all around polite and nice. And he's smart; he took all advance placement classes in high school and is doing very well here at Queens.

Danny's walking her home and they're talking about theater and music and Casey is having a fun evening. When they get to her apartment door he kisses her cheek and says that he'd love to hang out again. She smiles and nods and tells him how much fun she had.

Derek's game is just starting and as he skates out he looks for Casey and can't find her. He realizes that she's never missed a game and starts to worry about her. About ten minutes into the first period his coach benches him, saying that he's too distracted and while he stares at the stands the other team is scoring.

When Casey goes inside and closes the door behind her, she locks it and tosses her purse to the couch. She can't stop looking at the clock and she leans against the door and slowly slides down until she is sitting. At that point, she can't stop herself from crying.

-- One Year Three Months One Day Ago --

It's been awhile since they were home for Marti's birthday but since then, Derek can count the number of times he's been in a room at the same time as Casey on one hand (not including class where she now sits as far away from him as possible). And most of the time they end up at the same place at the same time, she's conveniently just leaving.

She's modified her schedule to never be home when he is, and on the days the he plays or has practice she comes home early and locks herself in her room. He knows she's not asleep and shouted as much at her door one day when he came home at eight in the evening to find her door shut and the lights inside off.

They now communicate through post-its on the microwave door. 'your week for grocery shopping' and 'have to study tonight – keep it down' are stuck to the door and apparently she can't just walk out of her room and turn down the television any more. When this first started he'd post things like 'I'm not doing this' or 'you're being crazy' now he just ignores it, trashing the post-its when he wakes up in the mornings (and Casey is all ready gone).

Derek decides to skip his classes for the day, and then he decides that sitting at the table in the kitchen waiting for Casey to come home would be a better use of his time. He sits there for hours and Casey finally comes in after her science class and nearly jumps out of her skin when she sees him, "Don't you have class now?" she asks putting her books on the table.

He shrugs, "skipped" she looks like she's about to go on some tirade about how important school is so he elaborates, "My room mate's been avoiding me"

"Your step sister has been avoiding you" she corrects and he swallows hard.

"Can we just talk about this, Casey?" he asks and her eyes dart around the room before she finally nods and sits across from him at the table. "Look, I know that it's crazy -"

"Let me see your wallet" she cuts him off. He gives her a quizzical look but pulls it out of his back pocket and hands it over. She opens it and from behind a photo of him and Marti she pulls out the hospital photograph of Annabelle, tiny hospital bracelet around her wrist, pink blanket wrapped around her. She nods and grabs her purse and pulls out her own wallet and pulls out an identical photograph. She places the photos on the table and slides them over to Derek.

"I know" he whispers.

She shakes her head and stands, "We don't even like each other" she says and he stands across from her.

"Yeah, I know" he answers and they're moving closer together as they argue and Casey would swear she has no idea why.

"We -" she starts but Derek's hands circle her arms and all the sudden they're kissing. It's much less gentle than the last and it's more like she (always/never) thought it might have been. They're fighting for control even here as their tongues fight between them.

-- One Year Two Months Fifteen Days Ago --

She wouldn't call it a relationship, because she doesn't go to him with her problems and he doesn't come to her with his. They don't go out on dates (though they do sometimes order in, and Casey has started cooking on Tuesdays and Thursdays again) but when Casey starts to think of him as something other than _just Derek_ her mind flashes to side by side photos of _their_ baby sister and she can't breath.

However, when she walks in to the apartment after her science class he grabs her arm lightly and pushes her against the wall and kisses her. She giggles lightly before she kisses back. It's not unusual (well, it is) at this point, they've been doing a lot of kissing since Derek cornered her in the apartment.

They never talking about a change in their dynamic, or decided on it really but that night Derek had kissed her (hard) and said that he wasn't going to keep doing this, so if she wanted something more she was going to have to say something, she'd stood there completely stunned, head reeling and he'd walked away.

Later that night she showed up in his room, eyes wide with nerves and fear, her hands fidgeting with the hem of her t-shirt. He stood up from his desk and looked at her expectantly, she couldn't think or breath, or speak apparently and he waited almost five full minutes for her to say something before, "Look, Case I'm right in the -"

She leaned up and kissed him. She wasn't sure about anything, except that she wanted a change too, so she just kissed him hoping the rest could work it's self out. (too bad that's not how the real world works).

Things had changed, obviously, but not in every way. They still fight over everything (from what to watch on television to what to order for dinner) but now, when a fight results in food being throw, Derek kisses it off her neck while she clings to his shoulders.

They haven't had sex, one night not long after this started, they were in Derek's room lying on his bed and his hand brushed against her thigh under her skirt. Casey had gone completely still for a moment and Derek moved his hand to her hip. She'd tried to act really casual about it but Derek knew she was terrified and he would never, _never,_ be the kind of guy who pressured some one into sex (especially Casey).

That night Casey and Derek had both fallen asleep in his bed, and while she laid her head on his chest, listening to the rhythm of his breathing her thoughts drifted to his hand under her skirt. (Truman had finger her, under her skirt, his fingers pushing her underwear aside, and she'd touched him a little, her hand in his boxers) but that was about as experienced as she was. She didn't want Derek to know that she had no idea what she was doing (though she's sure he knows she is a virgin).

-- One Year Two Months Ten Days Ago --

They're in the car headed back to London for the week. They're about a half an hour out of the familiar city when Derek pulls the car over.

"What did something happen to the car?" Casey asks immediately and Derek wonders idly if it's stressful being that constantly paranoid. He doesn't answer, choosing instead to lean over and kiss her. She's smiling when they pull apart then her forehead crinkles in confusion (Derek thinks it's adorable but it's not a relationship so he stays silent until) her head tilts to the side, "What was that for?"

"You don't remember?" he asks his voice holding a mocking tone.

"Remember what?" she asks quizzically and he laughs when he leans over and kisses her again. She wants to be closer so she unbuckles her seat belt and moves so she's sitting on Derek's lap, straddling him. Derek breaks the kiss and swallows hard before moving his hands up hers arms and over her shoulders, leaving Goosebumps in their wake. He mumbles something (God you're gorgeous) that she can't quite make out before his hands move to her hair and he pulls her lips back to his.

They've been kissing a while when Casey remembers the unanswered question, she pulls back and she's trying to catch her breath when she notices that Derek is playing with a lock of her hair, twirling it idly around in his fingers while he looks at her, waiting for her to speak, "What don't I remember?" she finally asks.

Derek laughs and kisses her once, "That we live with some of the nosiest step-sibs on the planet" she laughs but even as she does, he knows that was the wrong thing to say. He can practically see the wheels in her head turning and he traces an invisible line from the middle of her forehead to her temple lightly before kissing her but he can tell the mood is gone even in the way she kisses him back.

She breaks the kiss and then her words come out in a rush, "Derek, you're not going to say anything, right, about" she gestures in between them and looks at him with pleading eyes.

Derek closes his eyes to hide the hurt he's sure she'd see in them and licks his lips (he still tastes like her lip gloss) before answering, "Course not, it's not like this is…" he was going to say anything but instead he just trails off and she looks down when she nods.

They're driving again soon and they make it London within the hour.

-- One Year Two Months Eight Days Ago --

Everyone is in their rooms; Derek knows Casey isn't sleeping because he can hear the faint sounds of classical music coming from behind the wall that their rooms share. He opens his door and makes sure that no one is around before pulling his door shut behind him and walking into Casey's room.

She's moving things around the room, probably deciding if she wants to take anything back to Kingston with her when he walks in. She hears her door and knows that no one else would just walk in so when she spins on her heels and comes face to face with Derek there is no surprise. "What's up?" she asks and he shrugs before they give up pretense and meet in the middle.

Derek's got his arms around Casey and he's walking forward (causing her to walk backwards) until Casey's legs hit the futon frame. She sits and eventually they're both in the bed without having to break the kiss. Casey thinks that's pretty impressive.

He's straddling her this time, his knees next to her hips, her face in his hands, and her hands on his shoulders. Derek realizes that even with Stacey (who if he didn't love it was the closest he ever got) he never felt like this. And that scares him (to his core) but when Casey trails her lips lightly along his jaw line he thinks it might not be so bad.

He pushes her back lightly, until she's lying on the futon looking up at him. He hovers over her for a brief moment before lying next to her, on his side. He brushes her hair out of her face and smiles before he kisses her. His hand rests lightly on her hip and when he slides it just barley under her shirt he feels Casey freeze, he's about to pull it back when her hand covers his, so he trails his hand lightly over her stomach, (he likes the skin on skin contact). Both her hands move to cup his face ad she deepens the kiss pulling him closer to her. Something in Derek's chest twists all most painfully as he pulls her close.

Suddenly, Casey pulls back from the kiss laughing and Derek looks at her with questions in his eyes. She gestures around frantically but none of it makes sense so she buries her face in his chest, still laughing. "Okay, I'm pretty sure I'm offended" Derek say but she can hear the smile in his voice and his hand is running through her hair.

She shakes her head a little and leans back, taking deep calming breaths, "How did we get stuck with futons? They are so uncomfortable!" She finally says and Derek laughs. They move so they're lying on the futon, side by side, facing each other.

They talk in whispers about the apartment, and school, and Lizzie and Edwin, about whatever random things pop into their heads, breaking occasionally to kiss. They don't, however talk about anything serious; it's light-hearted and fun until they hear Nora in the kitchen with Anna, who is clearly fussing. Derek's hand is on Casey's elbow and he feels her stiffen at the sound. "They're not gonna come up here, Case" he whispers.

"What are we doing, Derek?" She asks suddenly; sitting up, panic lacing her voice. He starts to answer (something smart ass to bring the light-hearted mood back) when she continues, "We have a baby sister, who if we keep doing this, is going to need years of therapy. My mother would be heart-broken, or disgusted, and you're dad. Oh my God, Lizzie and Edwin" she's just listing people who this could effect and Derek sits up on the futon scrubbing his face with his hands.

"I thought we talked about all this, Casey" he says reaching out to touch her arm, he doesn't miss it when she flinches away from his touch. Granted, the talk hadn't been long or in depth but he didn't think it had to be so complicated.

She's shaking her head and holding in tears and she feels like she can't breathe. "Derek, I can't do this, _we_ can't do this. I'm sorry" she's whispering and Derek finally reaches out and grabs her arm, he's about to speak when her lips crash onto his, he kisses her back, wrapping his hand in her hair and holding her to him. She pulls back and rests her forehead on his for a long moment, "I can't Derek. I'm sorry" she whispers and disappears out of the door. (He hears the bathroom door open and close and he sits in her room for almost an hour and a half before going back to his).

-- One Year One Month Twenty Six Days Ago --

They've tried to go back to normal since getting back to Queens (the normal where they live together and share dinner on Tuesdays and Thursdays, not the normal where they make out on the couch with a hockey game playing on the television behind them). It hasn't really worked. Derek's pretty sure you can't just uncross a line like that, Casey seems determined to try though.

She meets up with his old room mate Andy and his girlfriend before his next hockey game and the three of them sit in the front row and cheer for him. He waves it off, but it's nice (especially since he wasn't sure she'd show). After the game they all head to a party at his team mates apartment. Andy tries to set him up with all most every girl there, but he can't get Casey out of his head so none of it goes anywhere. Later, he sees Casey standing by herself by the wall and walks over to her, handing her a glass of soda before calling her a loser for standing on the wall at a party.

-- One Year One Month Twenty One Days Ago --

Casey's sitting at the dinning room table; books open everywhere, when Derek gets in. He goes to the kitchen and grabs a soda and walks back in to the dinning room. He sits in the chair next to Casey's and pulls one of her books towards him, she pulls it back and he feels a smile tug at the corner of his mouth. He pulls it back towards him and when she reaches out to pull it back her hand lands on his. She looks up and stares at their hands for a long moment before snatching her hand back and stuttering out an apology.

"Casey" her name is a sigh and she closes her eyes tightly when he says it. They've been dancing around this conversation since that night back in London and Derek thinks it's time they have it. He leans over and kisses her and she kisses back for a moment before pulling her head away all most violently, "Casey" he says her name again and she jumps up from her chair.

"No. Derek, no, we can't do this. I can't do this. It's not okay" she says pacing a little as she speaks, never looking at Derek.

"Why, Casey?" he asks standing, but staying by the table.

"Because you're my brother"

"Step-brother"

"Same difference" she says and finally looks over at him. That was less painful the first time she said it.

He's shaking his head, "Not even close"

"We have a sister, not I have Lizzie or you have Marti. We have Anna." She says and starts pacing again, "And our parents, and I can't do that just because you're fun to make out with" she's practically yelling now.

"You are the dumbest smart person that I know" he is yelling.

"God, I hate you" she mumbles.

"You're an idiot" he says, still yelling. He swallows and it's a long moment before he shakes his head and says, "I love you" harshness still lacing his voice.

She's frozen, staring just past him and she jumps when he slams the door behind himself.

When he comes home a few hours later the apartment is dark. He walks down the hall and looks in Casey's room, she's not there so he sighs and continues to his own room. He walks in and tosses his keys and wallet on the nightstand. It's only then that he notices Casey sitting cross-legged in the center of his bed. She looks at him and it's like a punch to the stomach when he sees tear tracks on her cheeks, "I love you, too" she says quietly.

* * *

Chapter four (final chapter) coming soon. Please review!!


	4. Chapter 4

Please see chapter one for authors notes and disclaimers.

* * *

-- Present Day –

"I am not eating tofu" Derek says turning his face away from Casey's fork.

She laughs and moves the fork closer. After about ten minutes of this, Derek rolls his eyes and "You so owe me" before taking a bite. He chews slowly, "wow, actually not bad"

Casey gets excited, "Really?"

"No... not really" Derek laughs and spits the food back onto his plate.

She hits him, "You're disgusting"

-- One Year One Month Ten Days Ago --

Not for the first time, Derek's glad that no one on campus knows that he and Casey are step siblings. It turns out, they are one of those couple who hold hands (Derek loves the feeling of her skin on his, and she loves all that toucjhy - feeely - coupley stuff). At the next hockey game Andy says he always kind of thought they would be good together, but they seemed like they had a history so he didn't push it.

After that game, Derek pulled Casey to the back of the arena and kissed her, "No PDA huh?" she mumbled snidely against his lips.

"No one's here" he answered pulling her closer.

Later, at a post-game dinner at a small restaurant near campus with his team Casey pulls him close and kisses him. No PDA does flash through his mind for a brief moment before he wraps his arms around her. When they pull apart he flips his taunting team mates the bird.

-- One Year Twenty Nine Days Ago --

Casey gets home from the store and kisses Derek lightly as she walks in. She takes her bags to the kitchen and pauses. It's really couple-like, and she wonders if it should be weirder, that this seems to be getting more normal.

-- One Year Twenty Days Ago --

Derek and Casey are going to go to a movie after Derek's last class, so she goes to Goodwin Hall and stands outside, waiting for his business class to end. When he comes out of the building he's walking with a tall red head and Casey can't help the jealously that creeps in.

The girl laughs at something that Derek says and pushes him lightly and Derek smiles. They talk for another minute or so until Derek sees Casey leaning against a tree, waiting for him and says a quick good bye and runs over to her. He kisses her lightly, "Ready to go?"

"You sure you wouldn't rather go with her?" She asks bitterness evident in her voice (she can hear her cousin Vicky in her head; I don't know Casey, Truman's a lot like Derek).

Hurt flashes over Derek's features for a brief moment, soon replaced by anger, "You know Case, if you want this to work you're going to have to at least pretend to trust me" Derek turns to leave but her voice stops him in his tracks.

"You know, Derek, if you want this to work you're going to have to stop walking away when you don't like something." He bites his lip and turns around to face her. She walks over to him.

"I'm not really the cheating type" he says and she nods, she knows she has to give him that, he's never been a cheat. She mumbles a sorry and he makes her repeat it three or four time and increasing volumes before they go to the movie.

-- Eleven Months Eighteen Days Ago --

They're lying in Casey's bed, Derek leaning over Casey slightly, one of his hands on the bed, holding his weight, the other on Casey's hip. Her arms are around his neck, one hand in his hair the other on his shoulder holding him to her (as if he was trying to leave).

Her hand on his shoulder moves to his rib cage and when she slides her hand under his shirt it's experimental at best. He can feel her trembling so even though this relationship with her has been his longest dry spell since the first time he'd had sex he pulls back just enough to mumble against her lips, "Case, you don't have -" but she surges up and reclaims his lips with hers.

As much as Derek would like it, he knows she's not ready for sex. She fumbles with his shirt, and when he helps her pull it over his head he kisses her forehead lightly before moving his lips back to hers. She touches him through his jeans and he deepens the kiss, pushing her farther in the mattress.

He trails his fingers lightly from her hip to her outer thigh then up, under her skirt and in. He brushes his thumb over her damp panties and feels her sharp intake of breath in their kiss. He waits a moment, moving his thumb over her panties, giving her time before he hooks his thumb around the strap and pulls them down (he wants to pull her skirt down as he can really look at her, but he knows even this is new for her so he doesn't).

She moves her hands to his shoulders and he pulls back enough to look at her, she's looking at him with wide eyes and he kisses her lightly before adjusting so his hand on the bed can hold his weight and pressing a finger into her. She moans and her head falls back on the pillow and he kisses down the column of her throat, moving his finger in and out of her at a steady rhythm. He leans his forehead against her temple when he adds a second finger, "Breath, Casey…" he mumbles against her skin when he notices that she's holding her breath. He knows when her climax is close because she wraps her arms around him and pulls his lips back to hers and he adds another finger and quickens the pace at which they slide in and out of her.

She half moans, half shouts his name when she comes (he's pretty sure it's the best sound ever) and after, she buries her face in his chest while she catches her breath. He's pulled his arms around her and she kisses his chest once before she pushes him back, so he's lying flat on the mattress and she's leaning slightly above him. "Case?" he asks and he knows its all false bravado when she smiles and unbuttons his jeans. She pushes the zipper down and before she can start to pull at his pants he catches her hand and looks at her, she smiles once and nods a little so he rises his hips off the bed so she can push his jeans down (they get tangled around his ankles for a moment and he smiles when she throws them to the floor).

She reaches her hand into his boxers and closes her fist around his erection. He gasps and fists his hand in her hair, pulling her to him. She starts an up and down rhythm, slowly at first but it picks up speed as she gets more confident in herself. Derek makes it a point to kiss her when he comes, her name tumbles out of his mouth and he holds her to him.

-- Eleven Months Ago --

Casey comes into the apartment and drops a paper on Derek, whose watching television from his chair. He picks it up, and it's a schedule request form, he groans and she laughs at him.

During a commercial break, she walks over to the couch and giggles when his arm snakes out and pulls her to him until she's fallen into his lap. She kisses him once before taking the form from his other hand. She adjusts so she's sitting comfortably in his lap before, "Do you think we should take anything together this term?"

"I dunno, I am getting kind of sick of you" he answers, still looking at the television. She elbows him lightly and he smiles.

They go back and forth and in the end sign up for one class that meets two days a week together.

-- Ten Months Twenty Days Ago --

They have a break from school coming up, and they've decided that before that they should go home for a weekend and tell their parents that they're together. Neither one is sure how this is going to go, but both know they have to do it. At this point, they have to tell their families (family) especially since when they're home for a week it'll probably be pretty obvious that there's been a major change.

The car ride back to London is pretty quite. Both of them are freaking out, but it's just so much more obvious on Casey. Derek reaches over and takes her hand and she spends the rest of the car ride playing with his fingers. They pull into the driveway and go inside, but no ones home so they take their things to their rooms and Casey paces Derek's room while he sits on his futon and watches.

They hear a car in the driveway and Casey freezes, "I think we should go back to Queens and never tell them" she says in a rush.

He stands up and puts his hands on her shoulders, turning her to face him, "It'll be fine" he says and she rolls her eyes and steps forward, into his arms so he folds them around her. "I love you, okay" he whispers and she nods against his chest.

"Love you too" she whispers and they run down the stairs so they can meet everyone as they come in.

"Casey, Derek, what a nice surprise" Nora says carrying Anna in her car seat and kissing Casey on the cheek.

"Smrek!" Marti yells and runs over to Derek all most tackling him in a hug.

Everyone says hello and when Lizzie and Edwin go upstairs and Anna gets fascinated with her plastic key ring Casey hits Derek lightly and clears her throat, "Mom, George, could we talk to you?"

"Course, sweetie" Nora says walking over to the couch.

"Okay" George says sitting down next to his wife.

Casey sits on the other side of the couch and Derek sits on the arm rest behind her. He puts his hand on her back and she leans into it a little. "So, you know Derek and I have been getting along better recently," she starts and George and Nora both nod, "Well, the thing is…we…we just…" she had a speech all planned out (she even practiced) but now, when she needs it, her mind is totally blank and she just keeps stammering, hoping it'll come back to her.

"We're together" she hears Derek behind her and sees George and Nora adopt confused expressions, "like a couple…a dating couple" Derek elaborates and George and Nora both nod before going back to looking confused.

"How…what…how did this…" and suddenly it's obvious that Casey inherited her stammering when Nora does it as well.

George shakes his head a little before, "When did this start?"

"Few months ago" Casey's voice is a near whisper and she stares at her hands, neatly folded in her lap as she speaks.

"Months?" Nora asks anger in her voice. "What are you thinking, Casey?"

Casey looks up at her mom, "I don't…I just…we…" she swallows, "I'm sorry" she says and jumps off the couch and runs up to her room.

Derek watches Casey disappear up the stairs and looks at George and Nora for a long moment before, "I'm just gonna…" he trails off and points at the stairs before following Casey's path.

About ten minutes later Nora walks up the stairs and sees Derek sitting in the floor, leaning against the wall next to Casey's door, his arm outstretched and knocking on the door behind him, occasionally saying things like, "Case, come on, you have to open the door" Nora stops and watches and after about ten more minutes of that Casey opens her door, hands rubbing her raw red eyes and Derek says nothing, just wraps his arms around her waist and pulls his fingers through her hair.

They're about to walk into her room with Nora makes her presence known, walking towards them, "Derek, go help your father with Anna" Derek looks like he's about to protest, his arm still around Casey's waist, "Now" Nora says and doesn't miss it when Derek looks at Casey and doesn't leave until she nods a little.

"Come on," Nora says walking into Casey's room and waiting for her to follow before shutting the door and going to Casey's futon, sitting down and waiting for Casey to do the same.

"Casey, you have to understand that you surprised us back there" Nora's voice is calm and Casey knows that it's an effort. "Casey, when George and I first married we thought that this might come up, you and Derek are the same age and you're more alike than you think and we thought it might come up, but then you butted heads so much that we thought we had dodged that bullet" Nora takes a moment to collect her thoughts, "Casey, I don't know what to think about this now"

Casey nods, "I don't want to disappoint you, mom. And I swear I never, _never_ meant for this to happen" Nora nods and Casey continues, "Do you think that you could try to be okay with it, or try to keep an open mind?" She asks looking at her mom with pleading eyes.

"I could probably do that" Nora says pulling her daughter into a hug.

They go downstairs and find George and Derek having a similar conversation.

-- Ten Months Nineteen Days Ago --

George and Nora talk and decide that making Derek and Casey get separate apartments wouldn't do much; the damage is done and they could always go to each others apartments. Their kids were growing up, and that means letting them make their own decisions.

Derek and Casey have to leave but first Casey goes to talk to Lizzie and Derek goes to talk to Edwin. Both are surprised, but neither is angry. Shockingly, Derek's conversation with Marti turns out to be harder than his one with Ed. She is old enough to know that it's a little weird but too young to really understand why, or how they could fall in love (not that anyone really understood that part). And worse, she was so young when George and Nora married that she hardly separates Casey as a _step_ sister.

They've never been more relieved to be going back to Queens.

-- Ten Months Ten Days Ago --

Derek's lying in his bed, he can hear the television on in the other room but he's far too lazy to get up and turn it off. After a little while he hears the front door open and the sound from the television turns off abruptly. Either Casey's home or they're being robbed. He's pretty sure he's good with either.

He's practically asleep when Casey comes in and sits on his bed. She's giggling as she straddles him, her knees next to his hips. He moves his hands to her hips without opening his eyes and she leans down and kisses him. After a moment Derek feels her unbuttoning his shirt and he pulls away a little but she presses back into him, kissing him harder as her fingers fumble over and finally push the last button through.

"Sit up a sec" she mumbles against his lips and he tucks her hair behind her ears and holds her cheeks lightly so she has to look at him.

"Case" he asks and she smiles before she speaks.

"I want you" she whispers and kisses him. She can tell he's about to ask her something (why now, are you sure you're ready) so she kisses him harder and when she finally leans up for air she smiles, "I'm sure" she whispers and pulls him up by tugging on his open shirt until he rises, looking at her quizzically the whole time. She tugs his undershirt off before she pushes him back to the bed, kissing lightly down his chest.

His head leans heavily into the pillow before he pulls her back up, kissing her before pulling away and looking at her for a long moment. He smiles a little before he pushes her backwards, so she's lying on the bed and he's over her.

He moves his hand under her t-shirt and waits a moment before he pulls it over her head. He mimics what she did to him, kissing down her stomach, pausing at her ticklish spot and running his tongue over it and smiling at her squirming before he continues. He gets to the top of her jeans and feels her shiver a little so he pauses before pushing the button through and pulling the zipper down. He waits again before he pulls the jeans over her hips and down her legs.

The remainder of their clothes are lost quickly (he goes to pull out a condom before his jeans hit the floor but she's been on birth control since she was sixteen so he lets them fall to the floor) and Derek leans over her, (she's clearly self-conscious, being naked in front of him) and his voice is thick when he says "You're beautiful"

She blushes before she smiles, then leans up and kisses him. He moves over her slowly and even though it takes all his self control he leans back a little and runs his hand down her cheek, "You sure, Casey?"

She nods but he waits for "I'm sure" before he kisses her again. He enters her slowly, pausing so she can acclimate to the feeling; he knows she's in pain so he lets his lips brush her ear when he speaks, "I'm sorry, Case." She nods, "Just breath, baby" she lets out a breath and he runs a though her hair when he starts to move in her.

-- Ten Months Ago --

The drive back to London is easy, but once they get there Casey sits in the car and stares at the front door. Derek leans his head back against the head rest and looks over at her, "You know," he muses "you are going to have to go in there eventually".

She shakes her head, her hair flying around her face a little, "I can sleep in the car for a week"

"Might get hungry" he says brushing her hair back behind her ear.

"You can bring me food" she says and he shakes his head, "or I could go to the diner down the street since my boyfriend sucks"

He smiles when he shrugs, "What if you get cold?" he asks "and you run out of clean clothes, since half of what we brought back needs washed" he smiles, "Or -"

She hits his shoulder and he laughs. "Stop making fun of me" she says and he's about to respond (what fun would that be) so she rolls her eyes and corrects herself "shut up or I'm going to kill you…or make you do the grocery shopping next month"

"Yeah…I'd rather die" he says, his voice monotone.

All the sudden there's a frantic knocking on Derek's door so they glance at each other before Derek opens it dramatically, "Smarti!" he yells picking her up and pulling her into his lap for a hug.

"Welcome home Smrek" she giggles happily holding on to him. "Hey Casey" she leans over and hugs her as well. "Hey," she starts excitedly and Derek smiles, "did you guys know that we can see the car from in there?" she points back to the house.

"What?" Derek asks, fringing shock. "Smarti, that means the invisibility wash has worn off, we need more" Marti looks at him skeptically and he spends the next ten minutes trying to convince her that invisibility wash is a real thing. (Sometimes it hits him – she's not his baby sister anymore, she's his double digits sister now).

Then Derek tells her to tell Edwin (who he's sure put her up to that) that they'll be inside in a second. She jumps out and shuts the car door before Derek turns back to Casey. "What about now, you wanna go on now?"

She rolls her eyes but gets out of the car, grabbing her bags from the back before taking a deep breath and walking in.

-- Nine Months Twenty Five Days Ago --

Things are actually going kind of okay. The subject of her and Derek dating is largely avoided and they don't do anything to push it.

The night before last Derek said something about Casey sucking at math and she'd torn off a piece of her bread stick and thrown it across the table at him and neither missed the look that George and Nora gave them (though neither knew quite what to do with it either).

Casey comes down the stairs and runs into Derek who was on his way up. She pushes past him and smiles when his fingers wrap around her wrist and pull her back to him. He twirls her once, bringing her to stand in from of him, he kisses her lightly before pushing her back in the direction she was going, she laughs and hits him before continuing towards the kitchen.

She freezes when she enters the kitchen, "Hey, mom". She feels like she can't breath and it takes her mom saying her name twice before she walks over and sits at a stool by the kitchen island.

"You seem happy" her mom says.

"I am, mom" she whispers, hope in her voice.

"Just checking" her mom kisses her temple as she heads towards the sound of Anna crying.

Things get a lot less tense after that, and Casey knows she's lucky to have a mom and step dad who would accept something like this. Knows she's lucky to have a mom who honestly just wants her to be happy.

-- Nine Months Fifteen Days Ago --

They've been back at Queens for a little under a week, and Casey is regretting her new class schedule (heavily loaded with math and other requirements she's not particularly found of so she can go ahead and get them out of the way).

Derek and his team mates are at a party, he invited her to go with them but she was more excited at the prospect of having the apartment to herself so she could study in peace.

Around two thirty in the morning, (while Casey was asleep on the couch because she was too tired to walk the short hallway to her room) Derek stumbles through the door. Casey slowly sits up and it takes her sleep-fogged brain a moment to take in his appearance, "Wow, you're drunk" she says standing up and walking into the kitchen. She comes back out with a glass of water and pulls on his arm until he sits on the couch and starts to drink the water.

She's kind of annoyed, but it _was _a party, and he did invite her so she keeps her mouth shut. Besides, he's kind of a light-weight so he may not have even meant to get this wasted. So, she takes his hand and leans him to his room, smiling when he falls onto his bed. He pulls her down next to him and kisses her and when he laughs a little he says, "You're pretty" she giggles and lays her head on his chest.

-- Eight Months Ago --

Derek decides he wants to tell his mom about them but every time he calls her the reception is shit and the line gets cut off a lot. He's really glad that his mother is in Spain chasing her dreams and all, but he'd really like to tell her. He never realized that all most ninety percent of his contact with his mother since he all most went to Spain and she actually did was via email.

After a few weeks of trying, he finally just writes it to her in an email (you remember Casey right? We're together now). He knows it's a bad way to pass information that important but he honestly sees no other way to do it.

(He gets no response for almost a month and a half and when he does it's simply; that's nice, sweetie.)

-- Six Months Fourteen Days Ago --

It's time to decide what they want to do for summer break. Casey's been offered a summer program but she really wants to home and spend some time with Anna (who said mama while reaching for Nora a few days ago) so she declines and they make plans to spend most of the break at home and the last little bit of it back in Kingston.

-- Five Months Ago --

They got back to London a few days ago and fell easily into old routines. They help with the younger kids and Derek makes Marti feels special, even though she's not the youngest anymore, and shows her how she can help be a big sister for Anna, and he makes sure Edwin's not causing too much trouble in school (it's a balancing act he's quite excited to pass on). And Casey takes Lizzie shopping and to her hair done so she can have someone fawn over her for awhile (Liz gets a lot of the babysitting duties and Casey knows exactly how that feels).

And in between everything they help take care of baby Anna, who isn't such a baby anymore, she can crawl and spit out gibberish that she probably thinks is words and she cling to people and Derek can't help but smile when he sees Casey playing with the baby, and Casey totally understand how Marti got Derek more or less wrapped around her finger, because now she's watching Anna do the same thing.

-- Three Months Fifteen Days Ago –

They've been back at school for a few days. Classes won't start for another couple of weeks, but that's what they wanted, a little time. Casey had wanted to go to New York for a week, tell her father about them and show Derek around a city he'd never seen. But her dad said he was immersed in meetings all week and it wasn't a good time so she said okay and Derek took her to every chick flick playing at the movie theater a few blocks from campus trying to cheer her up.

-- Two Months Twelve Days Ago --

Casey's father was supposed to come in this weekend and spend a few days with them before going to London to see Lizzie. But, he called and said he had emergency meetings and couldn't make it. But he gives her the date of a weekend, two months in the future and tells her that he won't let anything stop him from visiting them and she smiles and tells him it's okay and that she can't wait to see him.

She knows she shouldn't feel the need to please everyone but he's her daddy and she just wants so badly for him to be proud of her and so she lets it go when he cancels and makes dinner for Derek and the hockey team instead. Derek tells her that she's the team's favorite girlfriend and she laughs before taking a dramatic bow by the table.

-- Present Day --

They're lying in her bed (they'd talked briefly about turning one of the bedrooms into a guest room and sharing a room since they always ended up sleeping in who ever's room was closer when they got tired but it became a fight so they decided that the current system wasn't so bad) naked and still lightly coated in sweat. He's on his back and she reaches down to pull a blanket over them before laying her head on his chest and drawing idle circles on his stomach.

-- Two Years Three Months From Present Day --

They're walking back to their small apartment from the corner deli where they've picked up some food for tonight. Their families (family) are on their way over for dinner so Casey plans on making lasagna. They're all most to their apartment when Derek's fingers snake around Casey's wrist. She turns around, her eyes looking quizzically at him. He pulls her to him and rests his forehead on hers, "Will you marry me?"

Casey all most drops the paper bag full of ingredients she's carrying and she looks at Derek for a long moment, "Seriously?" she asks and he rolls his eyes and nods a little. "Okay…yeah…let's get married". He smiles and kisses her and slips a ring on her finger.

When they open the door to their apartment, everyone is already there and in lieu of verbally answering the question he knows everyone is thinking he holds up Casey's hand so everyone can see the diamond ring on her finger.

-- Three Years From Present Day --

She's walking down the isle (George is giving her away because Dennis still isn't okay with her relationship) and she can feels tears all ready in her eyes. Derek's standing at the end of the isle, looking at her like she's beautiful. When she glances around she sees her mother and Lizzie and Marti, in matching bridesmaid dresses, and Edwin taking photos and Anna standing to the side, still clutching her basket of flower petals.

Later, when she says 'I do' its with tears spilling from her eyes and Derek smiling and she's pretty sure she's never been this happy.

-- Four Years Ten Months From Present Day --

She found out that she's pregnant this morning. A co-worker had jokingly suggested it when for the third time in the last couple if weeks she didn't feel well. She'd laughed it off at first, but as she thought about it, it started to make sense. She'd been on birth control since forever and she was as diligent about taking her pill as she was everything else but it says 99.9 percent effective on the box for a reason.

She pees on fourteen pregnancy testes before she believes what they say; she's pregnant. Even though her and Derek are happy together they've defiantly not been planning on a kid right now.

She sits in the kitchen and when Derek gets home he doesn't even get through _hey_ before she just blurts out, "I'm pregnant"

He stands, shell shocked for a long moment before, "Seriously?" She nods and he pulls her into his arms, smiling broadly.

-- Present Day --

She's lying with Derek, happy with her life and her chjoices and her relationship but with her father's rejection still fresh in her mind. She props her head up on her hand and looks at him, "You love me, right?" she asks and he smiles before he nods, "You think this is going to work out?" he nods again, "we're going to be really happy right?" he tucks a lock of her hair behind her ear as he nods.

She knows she's being ridiculous so she smiles, "do you believe in unicorns?". He's laughing as he flips her on her back and starts to tickle her.

She's completely out of breath when he stops. She surges up and kisses him, "I love you too, you know" she says as he lays back down and she settles in next to him, her head on his chest.

She can feel his chest vibrate a little when he laughs, "Yeah, I know".

* * *

End. Please review!


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